Multi-feed circular knitting machine having an improved patterning mechanism

ABSTRACT

A circular multi-feed knitting machine having a patterning unit in the form of a series of toothed discs positioned at each feed, wherein the discs of adjacent stacks of discs are in interleaved and overlapping relationship with one another, needle selection being effected by presser jacks each having a single reading butt which co-acts with selected ones of said discs.

United States Patent [191 Harris June 25, 1974 [54] MELTLEEEQGQQQLARifiNlT'ilNG 3,145,548 8/1964 Mishcon 66/50 A MACHINE HAVING A I O 3,167,937 2/1965 Carrol 66/154 R 3,283,540 11/1966 Levin 66/50 A PATTERNING MECHANISM 3,315,494 4/1967 Farmer 66/50 B UK [75] Inventor; Ronald Harris, Leicester, England 3,513,666 5/1970 Mishcon 66/50 A 3,641,786 2 1972 B d 66 156 73 Assignee: Stibbe Machinery Limited,

Leicester, England FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 1,240,761 7/1971 Great Britain 66/50 R [22] 1972 272,307 6/1927 Great Britain 66/50 R [21] Appl. No.: 263,558

- Primary Examiner-W. C. Reynolds v Assistant Examiner-Andrew M. Falik {30] Fore'gn Apphcamn Pnon-ty Data Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Baldwin, Wight & Brown June 28, 1.97] Great Britain 30139171 52 us. Cl. 615/501} 1 ABSTIFACT [51] Int. Cl D041) 15/74 A cll'culal' mum'feed knmmg machine havmg a P [581 Field f s g 65/50 13, 154 56 50 terning unit in the form of a series of toothed discs p 150 R, 42 sitioned at each feed, wherein the discs of adjacent I stacks of discs are in interleaved and overlapping rela- 5 References Cited tionship with one another, needle selection being ef- UNITED STATES PATENTS fected .by presser jacks'each having a single reading 2 030 815 2/1936 F 66/50 A butt which co-acts with selected ones of said discs.

elneman 3,122,905 3/1964 Gutschmit.; 66/50 A 8 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures PATENTEnJuuzsmm SHEET 2 UF 5 MULTI-FEED CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINE HAVING AN IMPROVED PATTERNING MECHANISM This invention relates to a multi-feed circular knitting machine having a patterning mechanism of the general patterning mechanism is to determine the manner in l which predetermined needles operate at relevant stations at desired times e.g., as to whether such needles clear and knit, miss or tuck, and so on, according to patterning requirements.

Although the invention is primarily applicable to a multi-feed circular knitting machine of the rotary needle cylinder type with a relatively stationary cam box,

it would be possible to apply it to a rotary cam box type of machine with a stationary needle cylinder.

' The invention, moreover, has particularreference to a patterning system of a previously propos'ed'character comprising, in combination, (a) knitting elements movably mounted in tricks or grooves in a cylinder, said elements having butts and, in addition to being selectively movable heightwise and controlled or influenced by cams actingon the butts for producing patterning effects, being also capable of movement radially into their tricks or grooves towards the axis of the cylinder so as to initiate the selective actuation, (b) presser jacks arranged in the same tricks or grooves as, and in front of, either the knitting elements themselves or intermediate jacks between the presser jacks and the said knitting elements, there'being one presser jack to each such knitting element or intermediate jack, as the case may be, and the stem of each presser jack being furnished with only one pattern butt (hereinafter for convenience referred to as a reading butt") (c) rotary stacks of superimposed discs, at least one stack per feed, adapted to be driven in timed relation with the needle cylinder and having at the peripheries of the discs pre-arranged radially extending teethfor cooperation with the reading butts in such manner as to press in selected presser jacks and thus effect, directly or indirectly, inward radial movements of the aforementioned elements into their tricks or grooves, the discs of each rotary stack being fixed so far as any movements thereof towards and away from the presser jacks are concerned, and (d) variable presser jack moving means for shifting the presser jacks longitudinally upwards and downwards to dispose their single reading butts opposite to the toothed peripheries of predetermined discs.

Thus, with the machine running, the rotary discs of the several stacks are all in action and operative, so that immediately any particular presser jack is raised or lowered to dispose its single reading butt at a height co,- incident with a plane containing a rotary disc, then if such disc has thereon at the relevant location a radially extending tooth the latter will act on the said reading into its trick or groove with the result hereinbefore described.

This invention is concerned with those multi-feed circular knitting machines having a number of feeds wherein the space available around the periphery of the machine is insufiicient to accommodate the normal pattern units of two adjacent selection points (associated one with each feed) side-by-side without overlap. On previous machines it has always been possible to accommodate a pattern unit of the previously mentioned disc type at each selection point without any interference between one pattern unit and its adjacent units. e

In order to design a knitting machine with a greater 5 number of feeds, and therefore more pattern units around its periphery which remains the same diameter, it becomes impossible to fit the existing pattern units side-by-side. Two alternative solutions to this have so far been proposed, one being that the units be made smaller in diameter, and the other being that the units be alternately placed at a high and a low level so that their perimeters may overlap.

In the case of the first mentioned solution, the design parameters aregovemed by the number of needles in the machine, which should be exactly divisible by the number of butts on the pattern discs, which in turn ,should be an even number easily divisible by several height of the pattern units and increasing the height of the needle cylinder and therefore the-height of the machine. Any increase in the height of present circular knitting machines is a disadvantage as the yarn threading operation through the yarn guide aerials can only be performed with extension threading hooks, or the use of steps enabling the operator to reach the aerials. The knitting head of the machine also goes above the operators eye level and surveillance of the machine is not so easy. It has also been found that the forces of the selection operation remain the same but their action on the smaller diameter spindle causes excess wear resulting in non-alignment of the pattern disc butts with the selector butts causing-breakage of the two elements.

In the case of the second solution, the staggering of the pattern units at a high and a low level again increases the height of the needle cylinder and the machine with the aforementioned disadvantages.

By increasing the number of feeds on a circular jacquard knitting machine, the depth of a pattern knitted is increased and therefore, in the above mentioned solutions, it has been generally accepted that, in order to keep the machine height increase to a minimum, fewer pattern discs are fitted in each unit which would normally decrease the pattern depth but, due to the increased number of feeds, the pattern depth in fact could be kept at a very similar level.

Machines of the above type at present being designed, and to which the present invention is specifically directed, have 48 feeds or more around a 30 inch knitting diameter and the object of the present invention is to provide a machine having an improved patteming arrangement which is such as to keep the machine and cylinder height increase to a minimum.

According to the present invention, there is provided a circular multi-feed knitting machine having patterning units at each feed, said units each consisting of a stack of pattern discs having a circumferential series of frangible teeth positioned to act upon reading butts of presser jacks positioned in tricks in the needle cylinder, wherein the discs of said stacks at alternate feeds are at a higher level than the corresponding discs of intermediate said stacks at feeds so that the peripheries of the discs of said stacks of discs at alternate feeds are interleaved with, and overlap, the peripheries of adjacent discs of said stacks of discs at intermediate feeds and vice versa.

The extent of overlap of the discs of said stacks of discs at alternate feeds with said stacks of discs at intermediate feeds is of course dependent upon the number of feeds around a machine, the only limitation in this respect being the physical possibility of the camming arrangements for the knitting movements between two adjacent selection points, and the diameter of the spacers between the discs, or the diameter of the discs spindle itself.

Although there is no limitation in this respect it, is preferred that the bottom disc of a stack at an alternate feed is as close, heightwise, to the bottom disc of an intermediate stack as is practically possible in order that the two discs act on the same level of reading butts. Similarly, the remaining discs of a stack at the alternate feed are best placed in the same relationship with their corresponding discs of said stack at an intermediate feed. In this way, the reading butt is kept to a minimum depth and the discs of a stack are kept closely spaced, whereas if the discs of one stack were central, heightwise, to the discs of the other stack, the reading butts would require to be deeper and the discs opened out, heightwise, on their spindles to allow for suitable clearances, particularly when it is required to perform selections on the half gauging principle.

For half gauge selection, the reading butts are set out in alternate form at two levels, one level corresponding say to the bottom disc of one stack, and the other level corresponding to the next disc up. In this way, each disc operates on alternate reading butts instead of consecutive ones and effectively doubles the width of the pattern.

Once during each revolution of the machine the presser jacks are raised or lowered two levels for single gauging selection, or four levels for half gauging selection, by use of a suitable lifting and lowering cam arrangement a specific example of which will hereinafter be described. In this way the reading butts are brought into co-operation with discs 1, 3, etc. in one direction of movement, and discs, 2, 4, 6 etc. in the other direction of movement for single gauging, or 1 & 2, 5 & 6, 9 & etc., in one direction and 3 & 4, 7 & 8 etc., in the other direction for half gauging.

With respect to pattern width, there is of course no limitation as to the number of discs which can be used. Thus, it is possible to. provide three levels of butts at every third selector and thereby use three discs for one pattern width.

In each of the above arrangements, the pattern discs revolve once for each pattern width but it is possible, by arranging the reading butts in three consecutive series at different heights, that one pattern width can be made up as a result of three revolutions of the pattern discs.

The advantages obtained by half gauging is most noticeable on fine gauge machines where the needles are pitched 24 or more to the inch. Thus, the width of each butt on the discs can be made wider for safety and need only be less than two needle pitches instead of one needle pitch for single gauging.

The invention is illustrated by way of example in the accompanying drawings in which,

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional view of only so much of the head of a circular knitting machine of the rotary needle cylinder type equipped with a preferred form of patterning arrangement as is necessary to illustrate the invention,

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a typical toothed disc,

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a particular presser jack butt layout using presser jacks of two forms set out in panels for half gauging,

FIG. 4 illustrates the camming included in two adjacent knitting sections of the knitting machine,

FIG. 5 illustrates the two stacks of discs at two adjacent feeds relative to FIG. 4, and

FIG. 6 is an elevational view of the raising and lowering cam arrangement for the presser jacks.

Referring to FIG. 1 of the drawings, the rotary needle cylinder of the illustrated multi-feed circular knitting machine is indicated at 1. This cylinder has formed therein a circular series of axially extending tricks 2 in the upper end of each of which is accomodated an individually slidable latch needle 3. Each such needle is furnished with an operating butt 4 adapted to be acted upon by needle-operating and controlling cams, such as 5 and 6, mounted in a stationary annular cam box 7 surrounding the rotary needle cylinder I. As shown in FIG. 4, the needle cam system at each feed includes a pivotable clearing cam 8 and a stitch cam 9.

The base of the knitting head is indicated at 10 and the cylinder drive gear at 11.

Immediately beneath each needle 3 there is provided a needle-actuating jack 12, which is fulcrummed at its upper end against trick insets 13. In the lower end of each needle trick 2 is mounted a presser jack 15 (see FIGS. 1 and 3) which is springwise fulcrummed at its lower end 14 and has on the front of its stem at the upper end a single reading butt 16. The back of the lower portion of each presser jack 15 has a series of butts 17 which mate, for heightwise location, with annular projections 18a on a locating ring 18 fixed to the needle cylinder 1. The front of the lower portion of each presser jack 15 has a further series of butts 20 for height selection according to raising and lowering cams hereinafter described with reference to FIG. 6.

A circumferential retaining ring 43 is located around the needle cylinder for co-operation with the outsides of the butts 20 to hold or retain the presser jacks 15 in engagement with the ring 18, the circumferential ring 43 only being broken at one position around the needle cylinder to allow the presser jack 15 to be moved up or down and out and in as will hereinafter be described.

Located behind each presser jack 15 is a tipping eleengagement with the circumferential ring 18 so that it can be raised or lowered as required.

Between each fulcrummed needle-actuating jack 12 and its corresponding presser jack 15, there is provided, in the same trick 2, an intermediate swiveling jack 21 which is fixed as regards any heightwise movement. For half gauging, the presser jack 15 shown in FIG. 1 is one of two different forms of such jack l5and 15' (FIG. 3) whereas of course only one form of presser jack is necessary for single gauging, as will be two prongs. Thus, inward movement of a swivelling jack 21 will also cause the corresponding needle actuating jack 12 to swing inwards so that an operating butt 25 thereon will be withdrawn from a jack camming track 26 in the stationary cam box 7, thereby causing the relevant needle 3 to miss-knit. It follows that the needles associated with unselected jacks will knit. There is, in this example, also formed on the top of each swivelling jack 21 an upwardly projecting butt 27 and, in advance of each feed, just prior to the rotary stack or stacks of selector discs, there is provided a withdrawal cam 28, shown in FIGS. 1 and 4. The action of the withdrawal cam 28 on the upwardly projecting butts 27 is to restore to their selection positions those swivelling jacks 21, which were previously selected and pressed into their outer positions, in readiness for reselection. Those jacks not selected will remain in the outer position. Since the tail 24 of each fulcrummed needle-actuating jack 12 is located in the forked end23 of its corresponding swivelling jack 21, the outward movement of the latter will also cause the needleactuating jack to move outwards, thus bringing its operating butt 25 back into the jack camming track 26.

As will be seen from FIG. I, the particular machine illustrated is equipped, in advance of the clearing and stitch cams at each feed, with a rotary stack of superimposed discs 29 each initially having at its periphery a full complement of seventy two equi-spaced radially extending teeth 30 predetermined ones of which, how-. ever, are broken off, according to pattern requirements. A typical disc 29 is shown in FIG. 2. The teeth 30 in each of the superimposed horizontal planes are capable of acting upon the single reading butts 16 of those presser jacks l5 appropriately lifted or lowered. The stack of discs 29 is carried by a central carrier shaft 31 with appropriate spacers 32 between adjacent discs. To accurately heightwise locate each disc 29, the pattern unit is also furnished with slotted elements (not shown) into the slots of which the discs are fitted, the elements being initially located inwards of the discs 29 and then moved outwards and locked in this position.

The upper end of the central carrier shaft is threaded to receive locking nut 37. The lower part of the shaft 31 is located in a driving shaft 34 which is rotatable in a bracket 35. The lower extremity of the shaft 34 has keyed thereto a pinion arranged in mesh with a gear 41 which is fixed, as by screws 42, to the lower end of the needle cylinder 1. The gear 41 is, in fact, interposed between the said cylinder 1 and its drive gear 11.

In a simple single gauging application of the present invention, the single reading butts 16 of the presser jacks 15 are arranged in one horizontal plane around the needle cylinder.

In a half gauging application of the invention illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 3, the single reading butts 16 of the two forms of presser jack l5 and 15' are respectively provided at the two heightwise positions indicated at (A) and (B) coincident with planes a and b occupied by co-adjacent discs 29.

It is to be seen from FIG. 5 that the same numbered disc of each stack operates on the butt 16 or 16' of the presser jacks 15 or 15 at the same level a or b although these discs are not actually at the same level but are slightly different in order that the discs of one stack can interleave with the discs of the adjacent stacks. As hereinbefore explained, the same numbered discs of adjacent stacks are as close together, heightwise, as is practical in order to keep the depth of the butts 16 and 16' to a minimum. This in turn keeps the heightwise movement of the presser jacks l5 and 15' to a minimum thereby keeping a minimum cylinder height for the arrangement of interleaved discs.

If all'the discs were centrally interleaved, i.e., they were equi-distant from one another it would be necessary to space the discs of each stack further apart in order to allow suitable clearance between the reading butts 16 at one level and the disc teeth 30 at the adjacent level. I

The discs 29 of one stack can be considered to overlap those of an adjacent stackimmediately above on both sides, or immediately below on both sides, but not above one side and below on the other, as this would lead to spiralling increase in the height of the stacks of discs. I

For half gauging, if the discs 29 of each stack are considered as number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 etc. up from the bottom, then the presser jacks 15 are moved heightwise to bring butts l6 and 16 into co-operation with discs l& 2, 5g; 6, 9 & 10, etc., in an upward direction and 12 & 11, 8 & 7, 4 & 3, in a downward direction at each revolution of the needle cylinder 1. The arrangement for effecting this will now be described with reference to FIG. 6 of the drawings.

Shown in FIG. 6 are double step (four discs) raising and lowering cams 44 and 45 respectively and a further single step (two discs) raising cam 46. Also shown are guide tracks 47 and 48 and an upper limit guide track 49, together with the aforementioned annular ring 43 which is chamfered at 43a and 43b either side of the raising and lowering cams. The guide 49 is fixed and defines the upper limit of movement of the presser jacks 15 and, like the other two guide tracks 47 and 48 which are movable into and away from the needle cylinder 1 as required, serves to guide the butts 20 at a fixed level if it is not required to raise or lower the presser jacks 15.

The cams 44, 45 and 46 are all movable into and away from the needle cylinder 1 as required in the manner disclosed in my joint copending application Ser. No. 817,930, filed Apr. 21, 1969, now US. Pat. No. 3,641,786, to either raise or lower the presser jacks 15 by operating on their butts 20. As hereinbefore described the presser jacks 15 are raised and lowered to bring their butts 16 to the height of a selected disc 29 normally in a sequence for single or half gauging, this being effected by selecting either cam 44 or cam 45 to co-operate with one of the butts 20. The cam 46 is a single raise cam and is selected to move a presser jack from one disc level to an adjacent disc level.

In operation therefore, when it is required to raise or lower the presser jacks 15, a fixed cam 50 operates on butt 19a of the tipping element 19 which pushes outwards the presser jacks 15 so that their butts project from the needle cylinder 1 and are influenced either by the raising cams 44 and 46, or by the lowering cam 45, or by the guide tracks 47 and 48.

During this operation, the butts 17 of the presser jacks 15 are held clear of the annular projections 18a of ring 18 by the cam 50 acting on tipping element 19. After selective movement of the jacks 15 has been made the chamfered face 43a of the circumferential ring 43 operates on the outside of butts 20 in order to depress the presser jacks 15 back into their tricks 2 to mate with the annular projections 18a of ring 18 so that they are locked in their heightwise positions until the next selection operation is effected.

I claim:

1. A circular multi-feed knitting machine having a series of knitting elements slidable in tricks in a needle cylinder, a corresponding series of presser jacks each having a single reading butt and arranged in said tricks, means providing an operative connection between each of said knitting elements and its co-acting presser jack, a plurality of feeds including alternate and intermediate feeds and a patterning unit at each feed, said patterning units each consisting of a stack of pattern discs having a circumferential series of frangible teeth positioned to act upon said reading butts of said presser jacks, said discs of said stacks of discs at alternate feeds being at a higher level than corresponding ones of said discs of said stacks of discs at intermediate feeds with the peripheries of said stacks of discs at said alternate feeds being interleaved with and overlap the peripheries of adjacent discs of said stacks of discs at said intermediate feeds and vice versa wherein said discs of each of said stacks of discs are spaced equi-distant from one another and, in the overlapping zone of adjacent stacks of said discs where each one of said discs of one of said stacks is interposed between two of said discs of an adjacent one of said stacks, the said interposed disc is closer to one of said two discs than it is to the other of said two discs in the heightwise direction of said stacks of discs.

2. A knitting machine according to claim 1, in which said reading butts of said presser jacks are of a depth which is such that said reading butts can be engaged by the said teeth of the corresponding disc of each of said stacks of discs.

3. A knitting machine according to claim 2, in which, for single gauge knitting, said reading butts of all of said presser jacks are arranged in a single horizontal plane.

4. A knitting machine according to claim 2, in which, for half gauge knitting. said reading butts of alternate ones of said presser jacks are disposed in a different horizontal plane to those of the intervening ones of said presser jacks.

5. A knitting machine according to claim 1, in which the outermost faces of said presser jacks are formed with a plurality of spaced projections, and raising and lowering cam means are provided to co-act with said projections to move said presser jacks in a heightwise direction relative to said stacks of discs so that said reading butts can be selectively positioned adjacent only one of said discs.

6. A knitting machine according to claim 5, including means for retaining said presser jacks in a selected heightwise position, said means comprising a series of spaced projections formed on the innermost face of each of said presser jacks to co-act with corresponding projections formed on a locating ring, and a retaining ring surrounding said series of presser jacks to urge them into engagement with said locating ring.

7. A knitting machine according to claim 6, including means for releasing said presser jacks from said locating ring at a position adjacent said raising and lowering cam means, said means comprising a tipping element associated with each of said presser jacks and actuated by a cam engaging one end thereof.

8. A knitting machine according to claim 1, in which said means for providing an operative connection between each one of said knitting elements and its coacting presser jacks comprise a swiveling jack and a needle actuating jack which are hingedly connected to one another in end-to-end relationship. 

1. A circular multi-feed knitting machine having a series of knitting elements slidable in tricks in a needle cylinder, a corresponding series of presser jacks each having a single reading butt and arranged in said tricks, means providing an operative connection between each of said knitting elements and its co-acting presser jack, a plurality of feeds including alternate and intermediate feeds and a patterning unit at each feed, said patterning units each consisting of a stack of pattern discs having a circumferential series of frangible teeth positioned to act upon said reading butts of said presser jacks, said discs of said stacks of discs at alternate feeds being at a higher level than corresponding ones of said discs of said stacks of discs at intermediate feeds with the peripheries of said stacks of discs at said alternate feeds being interleaVed with and overlap the peripheries of adjacent discs of said stacks of discs at said intermediate feeds and vice versa wherein said discs of each of said stacks of discs are spaced equi-distant from one another and, in the overlapping zone of adjacent stacks of said discs where each one of said discs of one of said stacks is interposed between two of said discs of an adjacent one of said stacks, the said interposed disc is closer to one of said two discs than it is to the other of said two discs in the heightwise direction of said stacks of discs.
 2. A knitting machine according to claim 1, in which said reading butts of said presser jacks are of a depth which is such that said reading butts can be engaged by the said teeth of the corresponding disc of each of said stacks of discs.
 3. A knitting machine according to claim 2, in which, for single gauge knitting, said reading butts of all of said presser jacks are arranged in a single horizontal plane.
 4. A knitting machine according to claim 2, in which, for half gauge knitting, said reading butts of alternate ones of said presser jacks are disposed in a different horizontal plane to those of the intervening ones of said presser jacks.
 5. A knitting machine according to claim 1, in which the outermost faces of said presser jacks are formed with a plurality of spaced projections, and raising and lowering cam means are provided to co-act with said projections to move said presser jacks in a heightwise direction relative to said stacks of discs so that said reading butts can be selectively positioned adjacent only one of said discs.
 6. A knitting machine according to claim 5, including means for retaining said presser jacks in a selected heightwise position, said means comprising a series of spaced projections formed on the innermost face of each of said presser jacks to co-act with corresponding projections formed on a locating ring, and a retaining ring surrounding said series of presser jacks to urge them into engagement with said locating ring.
 7. A knitting machine according to claim 6, including means for releasing said presser jacks from said locating ring at a position adjacent said raising and lowering cam means, said means comprising a tipping element associated with each of said presser jacks and actuated by a cam engaging one end thereof.
 8. A knitting machine according to claim 1, in which said means for providing an operative connection between each one of said knitting elements and its co-acting presser jacks comprise a swiveling jack and a needle actuating jack which are hingedly connected to one another in end-to-end relationship. 